Activity 10: Evaluation of Biomedical Literature

General Instruction: read the article Patients and Physicians

Attitudes Regarding the Disclosure of Medical Errors published in
Journal of the American Medical Association in 2003. Provide substantial
COMMENTS on different sections of the article. - COPY PASTING FROM THE
ARTICLE IS PROHIBITED - (NOTE: control+F is a simple tool to identify copy
pasting)
I.

Title and Abstract

Patients and Physicians Attitude Regarding the Disclosure of Medical

Errors. This article draws upon the patients attitude as well as the
physicians attitude regarding disclosure of the medical errors. The goal of
this article is to let the people comprehend about whats really about
Attitude when it comes to medical errors towards the physician. There are
a lot of factors that a physician can make a huge mistake and has to
apologize to his or her patient but the question is, Is it really okay to
apologize to your patient after making a mistake? We all know that
medical errors are not just a simple error. Would the patient understand it
easily? How would the patient react to this kind of instances?

II.

Introduction:

Medical Errors are very important to understand. Why? Because not all
physicians are perfect they can also make mistakes let us consider that
thing. The Attitude of the patient towards the Physician may affect the
physicians performance towards his/her patient. It is not unusual that
physicians made mistakes but we are also expecting a lot from them
especially in the field of medicine, diseases, and etc. The hospital should
be a safe place and a physician should be the one to help you to recover
from a certain disease. But in reality, thats not just the case. Physician
made errors and patients seek apologize to physician whenever they
made an error. We should not inculcate in our mind that just because they
are the physician doesnt mean they do not make mistakes. The Medical
errors are preventable adverse effect or care of the physician.

III.

Methods:

(Not less than 10 sentences)

IV.

Results

Patients were aware of the topic of errors in medicine. Patients conceived

of medical errors broadly despite being presented a standard definition of
medical errors, many patients including the poor service quality, not
preventable adverse events, and deficient interpersonal, perfect patients
understood that medical errors were inevitable. Most physicians concurred
that they worry a lot about medical errors. In addition to fearing that an
error might harm patients. Physician said their worst fears about errors
including lawsuits, loss of patient trust, loss of colleagues respect, the
patients informing friends about their bad experience and diminished selfconfidence. Physicians agreed the principle that patients should be told
about any error that caused harm, and many said that such disclosure
was imperative. Some physicians said that there was no need to disclose
an error if the harm was trivial or if the patient was unaware that the error
had taken place. Patients had mixed opinions about whether they should
be told about near misses because some patients thought that hearing
about near misses would alert them to what errors they should watch for
and would reassure them that the systems to prevent errors from
reaching patients were working. Both the patients and physicians had
unmet needs following errors. Physicians agreed that harmful errors
should be disclosed.

V.

Discussion:

VI.

Conclusion:

Physicians may not provide the information and the emotional support
that the patients seek following harmful medical errors. Physicians must
work hard to meet patients desires for an apology and for the
information, cause and prevention of errors. Insights into the patients or
physicians attitude toward error disclosure could improve the way
institutions and practitioners handle these types of events. An important
element of the response to medical errors is the interaction between the
patient who experienced the error and that physician. Strategies for
responding to medical errors should simultaneously consider the attitudes
of physicians and patients about errors and their disclosure. Institution
should address the emotional needs of practitioners who are involved in
medical errors.

Discussion and Conclusion:

Ive learned that attitude is very important towards your patient. As a future
pharmacist, I must consider a lot of things from my patient if I made a medical error.